This post includes some reflections on the use of Google Forms in data handling teaching and some problems we encountered in using them in the classroom.

For a few weeks now we have been exploring data handling in our numeracy lessons – we have included lots of work to allow children the choice of some current tools to use in their own investigations. In separate lessons we have explored how to use Create-a-Graph, Google Forms for collecting data and Excel for charting data. All of this exposure and practice in using these tools was a precursor to the children making some choices in the design of their own data investigation.

The children were working in small groups of 3s (about 10 groups) and the majority of them chose to collect the data for their investigation questions using a Google Form. I directed one child from each group to author the form and to share with all of their peers within the domain. (This was done by clicking on “EMAIL FORM” when editing the form and clicking on “CHOOSE FROM CONTACTS” and choosing “ALL CONTACTS” from the drop down menu)

I decided to build in some time for the children to complete the forms that different groups were sharing with them. And this is where we began to run into problems. The progress of each group was starting to stretch out – some were completing forms and some had lots of data, others had only a few results because the forms had not been completed yet. The difference in what they may be doing was also beginning to mean that I had no way of ensuring a specific group was at a certain stage.

The simple fact is that I had no way of ensuring that every child completed every form. As a result the pool of data was different for each group.

I still believe that using a Google form is a valid way of collecting data – it also organises info and even produces a graphical representation of it. A powerful tool. But it is difficult when trying to collect lots of data from a year group at the same time. If their are lots of forms from lots of different groups it becomes unwieldy and difficult to steer on the right track. Saying that, I still wanted to provide the choice of tools to the children, attempting to replicate what happens in real life.

Here is a possible solution that we have thought of:

  1. Children work in small groups of 3s
  2. Generate a question for their investigation eg “What is Year 5s favourite lesson?”
  3. Plan for the process and choose from a range of tools that have been covered in previous lessons. The children still have the autonomy to make a choice, which is key.
  4. Draft their investigation question – a single multiple choice question.
  5. Teacher/TA or children from the different groups author a single form including all of the questions from the different teams.
  6. Form is shared with whole class or year group.
  7. Children are given time to answer all of the questions in the form via their GMail- this way you can guarantee that all of the groups have responses.
  8. Once all of the responses have been submitted then the resulting spreadsheet can be shared with the whole class. Children would then be able to view a single column of information for their own question.
  9. Further graph work could be completed from then onwards.
I think this method provides children with access to a guaranteed set of data from their peers (which was lacking before) and their progress in terms of analysing the information is much more easily tracked by a teacher. I would recommend such a method in the primary classroom and perhaps look to do larger numeracy groups if you did want them to create their own forms. The process outlined above does allow you to still utilise the power of Google Forms, and worry less about the collection of data and more about the analysis, questioning and representation.

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